The Dark Evolution Of The MCU's Thanos

2. The Infinity Stones & Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Once more, Thanos' appearance in Avengers: Age Of Ultron was brief but it at least helped refocus Thanos. After establishing more of his psychology, the post-credits scene was designed to be the first real step in him attempting to get the Infinity Stones.

Up until this point - mostly because of a lack of focus from the film-makers plotting his course - his involvement with the Infinity Stones was vague. We knew he wanted them, but we had no idea why. Had they dropped them entirely after Guardians of The Galaxy and returned to him simply wanting to take over the universe, we would have lost very little. In fact, it probably would have suited Joss Whedon more.

But because this was the Infinity Saga as defined by the Stones appearing throughout the first two Phases, the refocus had to happen, which is why we got the confusing stinger of him retrieving the Gauntlet. Why confusing? Well, because Infinity War established that the timeline of Eitri forging the Gauntlet made that stinger impossible. But if we take it solely as a means to announce that Infinity War was coming, it's still a useful step in the Thanos canon.

It also, for the first time, afforded us the luxury of knowledge that he had an end game. If there was a Infinity Gauntlet, there was an a Snap and there was an Infinity War. But at this stage, because of what we knew - or what we didn't know, more specifically - of Thanos, we had no way of knowing why he wanted to wipe out half of existence. That came with Infinity War...

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